The Opelousas courier., 1887-03-26
THE MAD ENGINEER.
AN ENGLISH sToKER's STORY.

'N 40 A'A "Ahib a.
| was, / am a bcncfactor to some of my
fellow-ereaturcs; i: / was not / am a
murderer. My readers shall have an OPP
p%ortunity of judging, and I hope their
judgment my be ~lenient.
Some years ago, I was we'll off, and
received the education and bringing up
oil a gentleman; but partly through my
own folly, and partly through unfortu-
nate spccu!ations, l lost all my capital;
and saw starvation grinning at me with
in measurable distance. Then / deter
mined to attempt no longer to keep up
appearances, but try and earn q bare cx-
istence IN any walk of lie that was open
to me. After some f~ruitless efforts and
a good deal of the nope deferred Which
'maketh the heart SICK l obtained,
through the kindness Of a gentleman
connected with Tie G.cat Junction Rail-
way. the position OF stokcr. I never was
given to drink, so that | was well enough
able to fulfil the lowly duties of nv DO
sition.
On the day when / went through the
most disagrecable experience of my life,
| was travelling from PadIington to
Cowchester ON the we'll known--to rail-
way employcs-engine named Pluto
She is a fine, outstanding, bold sort of
engine. and when in good temper, does
her work right well. The engine driver
on this occasion was a man named John
Morgan. had not often travelled with
him before, only two or three times, and
l could get on comfortably with
him. He had been many years in the
company's service, and bore an excellent
character for steadiness, but was con-
sidered rather taciturn. He seemed to
be always In the sulks, and was, | sup
pose, OF a surly temper. Before we
started, he hardly answered any remark
] addressed to him, and seemed more
surly than usual. Once when / took up
a cloth to br ghten one of Pluto's taps,
he called out to me in a savage tones:
'Let her alone, can't you. She'll travel
to-day without your bothering.n
IL was past twelve when we got the
to move There was such a crowd
people of all classes on the platform
that room could hardly be found for
them in the train. However, at least
headguard gave us the signal, and
turned the handle, and we
moved slowly and steadily out of the
When we got well out into the
country, Morgan turned to me and said
"More COAL"
Now, in my opinion, no more coal was
wanted, as there was quite enough in
he fire to keep us the usual speed.
However, as q stoker, | was only an un-
and must obey reasonable or
!ers. So ] stocked as hidden, and then
.uriously watched to see if the engine
river would turn on full speed. He did
Of the sort, but sat with Ii S
Jack to the boiler and began to talk to
quite affably. There was nothing at
bis time peculiar in his minner, except
he was more talkative than usua.s
he would now and then turn half
ouud to the engine and call out: "Get
n, old girl, get enIf' We had before
Of an hour and a hall, and by
time We were due at Biinfon, a big
JUNCTION, OF which every train must
top.
About an hour after leaving Padding
on, Morgan stopped suddenly in the
of q sentence and said: "WeiI, /
get to work now" Then he
pened the frebox door and called out
me: more coal.a
To pacify linn, ] took up a shovelful, )
nd managed to upset some of it before !
had reached the irebox. !
sYou clumsy foolW he called out; !,
here, give it 10 me;n and snatchine !
shovel out Of my hands, he crammed !
3 as much coal as he could get in. !
/ was beginning TO get alarmed; and /,
over the well-known country
Tor I had Travelled that journey many j
many o time before-I saw that we I
ere much nearer to BIinton than we !
lght to be at that hour. However, .
it did n much matter, for the i
was signalled Gear in front of us. ]
ID the damage done was. as yet, simply
little waste of coal. In o few minutes
i speed increased enormously, and /
lculated we were travelling at the. rate {
seventy miles an hour. ! thought it t,
time to demonstrate, and turning to 4
organ / noticed that the indicator B
owed full speed. Icalled his attention b
the fact, and begged him, to reduce j
E speed, Or we should run into Blinton i
being able to stop. Ib
tsHa, hair heSeried III reply. astop i
2 never going to stop againi | told 4
Fd make her travel. What do yon
To SOP fora Get ID, gct onln
'en be burst into 8 peal Of laughter.
! cold sweat of absolute terror broke ii
! on ule u ] fealixed HE state 81 ii
Ings. Here was raying maniac,
stronger ma than myself, in charge 81